Quotes from John F. Kennedy

Great crisis produce great men and great deeds of courage.

When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.

We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes.

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House-- with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

They follow the Hitler line - no matter how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as the truth.

LET US THINK OF EDUCATION AS THE MEANS OF DEVELOPING OUR GREATEST ABILITIES, BECAUSE IN EACH OF US THERE IS A PRIVATE HOPE AND DREAM WHICH FULFILLED CAN BE TRANSLATED INTO BENEFIT FOR EVERYONE AND GREATER STRENGTH FOR OUR NATION. ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND EVERYONE SHOULD TRY.

Things don't just happen. They are made to happen.

No American is ever made better off by pulling a fellow American down, and all of us are made better off whenever any one of us is made better off.

You can't relate to a superhero, to a superman, but you can identify with a real man who in times of crisis draws forth some extraordinary quality from within himself and triumphs but only after a struggle.

But wherever we are, we must all, in our daily lives, live up to the age-old faith that peace and freedom walk together. In too many of our cities today, the peace is not secure because freedom is incomplete. (John F. Kennedy, June 10, 1963, American University speech)

We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.

The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of the nation, is close to the center of a nation's purpose - and is a test to the quality of a nation's civilization.

Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself. Inaugural Adress, January 20, 1961

When power narrows the areas of a man's concerns, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence

Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies. Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder.

The greater our knowledge increases the greater our ignorance unfolds.

All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop those talents.

We, in this country, in this generation, are - by destiny rather than by choice - the watchmen on the walls of world freedom.

For, in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, 'holds office'; every one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities. We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.

World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor—it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement. And history teaches us that enmities between nations, as between individuals, do not last forever . . .

Truth is a tyrant-the only tyrant to whom we can give our allegiance. The service of truth is a matter of heroism.

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute; where no Catholic prelate would tell the President -- should he be Catholic -- how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference, and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him, or the people who might elect him.